LAW ABIDING RESIDENTS BEING DUBBED AS TERRORISTS
ELLEN NAKASHIMA, WASHINGTON POST - Private businesses such as rental and
mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers
against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made
publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying
services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the
list. The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially
designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial
institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other
criminals. But an executive order issued by President Bush after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in
unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home
and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to
interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of
the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued today.
"The way in which the list is being used goes far beyond contexts in
which it has a link to national security," said Shirin Sinnar, the
report's author. "The government is effectively conscripting private
businesses into the war on terrorism but doing so without making sure
that businesses don't trample on individual rights."
The lawyers' committee has documented at least a dozen cases in which
U.S. customers have had transactions denied or delayed because their
names were a partial match with a name on the list, which runs more than
250 pages and includes 3,300 groups and individuals. No more than a
handful of people on the list, available online, are U.S. citizens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/
AR2007032602088.html?nav=rss_business
CNN - Ever felt like you were being watched? With the rise in the number
of surveillance cameras on our streets and in our offices, more often
than not you are. But rather than just watching you, the next generation
of surveillance cameras will be able to tell if you're up to no good
and, developers hope, spot crimes and misdemeanors before they happen. .
. By using an algorithm to tell the normal from the abnormal, the
software is able to alert a security guard if it deems something to be
out of the ordinary. . . In the UK there is approximately one
surveillance camera for every 14 people and issues of invading civil
liberties surround ever new development in our surveillance society.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/26/fs.behaviorcameras/
STUDENT SPENDS A FEW IN WEEKS IN PSYCH WARD BECAUSE SHE THINKS POLICE
ELLEN NAKASHIMA, WASHINGTON POST - Private businesses such as rental and
mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers
against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made
publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying
services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the
list. The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially
designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial
institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other
criminals. But an executive order issued by President Bush after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in
unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home
and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to
interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of
the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued today.
"The way in which the list is being used goes far beyond contexts in
which it has a link to national security," said Shirin Sinnar, the
report's author. "The government is effectively conscripting private
businesses into the war on terrorism but doing so without making sure
that businesses don't trample on individual rights."
The lawyers' committee has documented at least a dozen cases in which
U.S. customers have had transactions denied or delayed because their
names were a partial match with a name on the list, which runs more than
250 pages and includes 3,300 groups and individuals. No more than a
handful of people on the list, available online, are U.S. citizens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/
AR2007032602088.html?nav=rss_business
CNN - Ever felt like you were being watched? With the rise in the number
of surveillance cameras on our streets and in our offices, more often
than not you are. But rather than just watching you, the next generation
of surveillance cameras will be able to tell if you're up to no good
and, developers hope, spot crimes and misdemeanors before they happen. .
. By using an algorithm to tell the normal from the abnormal, the
software is able to alert a security guard if it deems something to be
out of the ordinary. . . In the UK there is approximately one
surveillance camera for every 14 people and issues of invading civil
liberties surround ever new development in our surveillance society.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/26/fs.behaviorcameras/
STUDENT SPENDS A FEW IN WEEKS IN PSYCH WARD BECAUSE SHE THINKS POLICE
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